Makin' it Work

What better way to spend a cold, dreary day in March then at the state library?!?

I spent the better half of my day scouring a couple old books researching about the origins of fairy tales. To say the least it was interesting and an enlightening. This adventure has been brewing for quite some time and I am finally getting going with it.

It all started…. Well, lemme just give you the abridged version: I wanted to do a read around the world tour. Reading and exploring different children’s literature in other countries, with the hopes of creating a cultural reading club of sorts for my school.

This particular adventure had to start somewhere and after seeing the new Beauty and the Beast movie (pretty awesome, btw), I took off running with the fairy tale idea. While my research today did not turn up anything about Beauty and the Beast per say, I did learn a lot about the topic.

First and foremost (if you don’t already know) fairy tales started just tales being told. They were passed down from mother to child, storyteller to those who would listen, and so on.

The history of all this has theories based in how man has evolved. Starting with the most savage of mans and primal thinking and moves into a stage where fairy tales come from. Do to a mindset that all things are alive and have spirits we get the misguided characters we have come to know and love. (There are also a lot of religious undertones in the development and history to how these stories have evolved. That while quite fascinating, I will not get into here).

With that being the case, most stories do not have an original author and there are many variations to the stories we know.

We have Charles Perrault, The Brothers Grimm,Hans Christen Anderson, and others to thank for that. Again they did not come up with these stories but modified and wrote them based on folk tales of their time and country. (It could also be said that they worked off of each other as well depending on the scenario. I.E. The Brothers Grimm could have been influenced by Perrault).

I also learned about the classification system of fairy tales, and different cycles of the variations.

Once I finally processed everything and sat back and thought, my mind flew. As a teacher there were so many directions I could take with this. My mind flew into the possibilities. There is still so much more for me to digest.

This adventure is not over, I will venture out to the library again. (BTW that was a different experience as well… more on that later.) I am hoping my research will take me elsewhere. There are some books in some universities that I want to read so ROADTRIP!

The books I read(ish) today:

Here’s my Plan:

1.Continue to learn about Fairy Tale History 2. Continue to learn about the value of fairy tales as a base in children’s literature3. Choose stories to run with for further development in my own knowledge ( including learning about the countries they come from)

Whelp that is it for now. Will write a post on the awkwardness of going to the state library later.

Makin it WorkManda

Reading, it has been my passion and hobby since I was little. During my college years, I definitely slowed down to almost non- existent reading. Now that I am finding myself on a better schedule and have some spare time for frivolous things, I am reading more.

Lately I have been rereading The Chronicles of Narnia. A series I read as child and felt the need to revisit.

Man am I glad I did so! Rereading this series as an adult has been great! Not only do I appreciate the literature a bit more but being able to dive into the adventure makes me feel like I am Lucy coming back after all those years. (Which it almost is…. except I am not Lucy, I am Manda and I am not a High Queen of Narnia 😦 sad) BUT! I can pretend to live it.

**Choose any one of the ‘I have lived a thousands lives’ quotes about readers and insert here** (seriously any number will do. I hear George R.R. Martin’s is good)

Rereading Narnia has also provided a nice escape from the dreaded Facebook and all the politics. For whatever reason, I am drawn to just aimlessly browse my Facebook feed for hours. Anymore, I am just upset at all the crazy politics. So I get my escape in Narnia!

Lets just take a second and appreciate the writings of C.S.Lewis. I am not sure if it is because I am not an English teacher and encourage my students to look for different elements or just because I am older and notice things more (or maybe I noticed it before and just didn’t remember 😦 ) HOWEVER! The Chronicles of Narnia are well written, like a storyteller telling a story.

The telescope of view is always changing and the many layers to the story that get unraveled. While I would say that most of the books tend to be a bit bottom heavy. i.e. most of the excitement is occurring at the end of the book. It pulls you through the story and to the end. C.S Lewis has built a trust that you rely on, that the story will be worth it.

The lessons to be learned within the pages are also of importance. The best one I believe, is that there are consequences for our actions. Seen throughout each of the books, this theme presents itself in a variety of ways. While each of these lessons are taught in a very subtle way, it is still taught. Makes the heart happy.

I will continue to read the series and be more enlightened as I go. Currently in the middle of Prince Caspian. Now this one truly has you hooked.

First of all, all of the tips and tricks out there are crazy! I realize you have to begin with the end in mind, however; after scouring Pinterest post after Pinterest post I finally just decided to jump feet first! What is going to happen, it fails?? Then what?? My blogging days that barely started are over…. Oh well!

Coming up with a blog name is hard and challenging. Kudos to all those people out there who are creative and well crazy. For reals though.

I am hoping my approach is going to be realistic look at life. Like as a second year teacher… there is no way my classroom or activities are going to be that squared away, BUT I will sure try my hardest!

Nor will my dinners look that nice… for real though, you are just going to eat it. Why spend half the time making it look amazing just so it can be eaten and look …. Well, not so amazing.

I do understand and could try and appreciate the thought though. Like you put all this time and effort might as well make it look good. Plus other people are going to respond better to that…right? Right.

Anyways!

Here is my plan:

Get my life on track.

Get healthy

Organized

Be more consistent.

My hope is that my giving this stuff a purpose (by informing the imaginary world of blogging about all my comings and goings).

Let’s see how long this last!

Manda–Makin’ It Work

Special Thanks to the lovely ladies who helped name my blog and whom I am sure will be next to me on all my Misadventures! XOXO

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